Inspector Imanishi Investigates - Seicho Matsumoto

This is a fascinating little murder mystery investigation that on the surface appears to be a quiet old-fashioned police procedural investigation in the style of Maigret. The investigation proceeds initially at a fairly leisurely pace, Inspector Imanishi following leads that seem to be unfruitful, trying to balance a modest family life with a determined duty to see justice done, and relying often on flashes of inspiration to make connections. In that respect, Inspector Imanishi Investigates is a competent police thriller, but almost without you noticing, the novel takes in and reveals much about the complex layers of Japanese society along the way.

The murder investigation is centred on the discovery of an unidentified old gentleman, found dead on the railway tracks in Tokyo. Initial investigations fail to gain enough information and the case is reluctantly categorised as unsolved, pending any new information turning up. When a missing person report is connected to the murdered man, Imanishi suspects that the reason they have had difficulty making progress in the case was that the direction they had been led down had been deliberately misleading. They are clearly dealing with a highly intelligent murderer. A number of strange and suspicious incidents and deaths bring Imanishi's attention to a small but influential group of young intellectuals known collectively as the Nouveau group who are making progressive advances in modern music, architecture, criticism and drama. Imanishi suspects a connection between their activities and the case, but is unable to imagine how their high-brow theories can have anything to do with the murder of an innocent old man.

Imanishi's investigation takes him to far-flung unknown parts of the Japanese countryside (the inspector conscientiously concerned about the expenses involved for seemingly little gain), but the taking in of Japan as a whole is significant, as are Imanishi's methods. The police methods, the diligence and personal investment shown over a single case, reflect very much on the period (the novel was written in 1961), and are a fascinating little detail, but they have greater relevance than that. There is a mistrust of the young progressive intellectuals that is somewhat conservative, but it accurately reflects the conflict between old ways and the new. It's there in the contrast between the haiku and the abacus revered by Imanishi and the 'musique concrete' of the Nouveau group and their impenetrable intellectualising. It's there in the contrast between the city and the countryside, so wonderfully captured in the novel, and it's there most significantly in the contrast between the pre-war and post-war societies. 

The perfect crime then is one that leaves no trace, all evidence of any crime completely erased. In Imanishi's investigation into pre-war records destroyed by the bombings of Japan, Seicho Matsumoto cleverly extends this idea to the erasing of the past and a denial of heritage that leaves the country open to an even greater 'perfect crime'.